Chapter 47: Imperial Purveyors (Please Collect, Please Recommend)

The man known as "Soy Sauce Huang," whose full name was Huang Jiang, courtesy name Shiren, ran a restaurant and a sauce shop. He was a native of Xinhui County in Guangzhou Prefecture. He had followed his father's generation to Beijing to do business and had stayed there for over ten years. He was not old — only twenty-four or twenty-five — and he was very tall, with fair skin and a square, angular face. Judging by his looks, he did not seem like a man from Lingnan at all.

Old Su the grain merchant, who ran a grain business, was from the Southern Metropolitan Region, with his ancestral home in Shanghai County, Songjiang Prefecture. His family had settled in Beijing for two generations, all of them in the grain trade. The "merchant name" Old Su had originally belonged to his father, and now he had inherited it. He was about the same age as Huang Jiang, twenty-four or twenty-five. His full name was Su Sheng, courtesy name Shengzhi. He was of medium height, slightly plump, and his round face was always brimming with smiles.

These two merchants were utterly ordinary figures in Beijing — not great merchants, but their businesses were not too small either, and they had no powerful backing. They were simply the kind of merchants who did honest, steady business. In all of Beijing, there were no fewer than several hundred, if not a thousand, just like them. Yet good fortune had fallen squarely on the heads of these two!

The two merchants were led by Huang Dabao into the Hall of Auspicious Joy. Knowing they were about to meet the Crown Prince, they were both somewhat nervous and entered the great hall with their heads lowered. After Huang Dabao told them to stop, they immediately dropped to their knees and kowtowed.

"This commoner Huang Jiang kowtows before the Crown Prince, Thousand Years..." Soy Sauce Huang spoke in a thick Guangdong official dialect.

"This commoner Su Sheng kowtows before His Highness." Old Su, by contrast, could speak standard Beijing official dialect.

"Raise your heads. Stand up and speak," Zhu Cilang instructed.

"This commoner dares not..."

"This commoner dares not either..."

"Why all this useless talk?" Zhu Cilang's tone hardened. "Get up and speak!"

Huang Dabao chimed in from the side: "His Highness tells you to rise, so rise!"

Only then did the two merchants shakily get to their feet. They did not dare look directly at Zhu Cilang, and kept their heads lowered, the very picture of meek obedience.

"Did Huang Dabao tell you?" Zhu Cilang asked.

"He did." Soy Sauce Huang from Guangdong, being accustomed to dealing with the palace eunuchs, was not as stiff as Old Su. "His Highness wishes to promote this commoner to be some sort of imperial merchant."

"An imperial purveyor," Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "That is, a merchant who works for Us... and We never let anyone work for nothing. You are abandoning your households and businesses in Beijing to follow Us, so We shall of course compensate you. Is twenty thousand taels of silver per household sufficient?"

"Enough, enough," Su Sheng hastily waved his hands. "This commoner's possessions in Beijing are not worth twenty thousand taels — not even ten thousand!"

Huang Jiang also said: "This commoner's property in Beijing is not worth ten thousand taels either..."

Zhu Cilang laughed. "Quite honest, aren't you... Good! A merchant should take sincerity as his foundation. With sincerity as the foundation, a business can grow great!

Still, We shall give each of your households twenty thousand taels of silver. It is not that We have too much money and nowhere to spend it, but that to serve well as imperial purveyors, you must have capital. These forty thousand taels are your starting capital.

Do you know what an imperial purveyor does?"

"This commoner does not know."

"This commoner does not know either..."

Zhu Cilang smiled. "They manage money for Us, and buy and sell goods for Us... Once We escort the Emperor out of Beijing, the original imperial estates and imperial shops will be gone, and this granary and that storehouse of the Ministry of Revenue will no longer exist. We will have to rely on you two imperial purveyors to do the purchasing. This business will bring in far more money than running a restaurant, a sauce shop, or a grain business in Beijing!"

Both merchants were overjoyed at these words. They had no idea just how large the business of an imperial purveyor might be — had they known, they might not have been able to laugh! But being able to leave Beijing, that place of trouble, in the Crown Prince's train was in any case a happy thing.

As for welcoming the Roving King and such — that was a last resort when there was no other way. Although the two of them were not great merchants, neither were they penniless wretches hoping for Li Zicheng to come and redistribute the land. Being able to flee was naturally best. And Zhu Cilang had also promised each of them twenty thousand taels to compensate their losses.

"This commoner is willing to serve His Highness with the utmost loyalty!"

"This commoner is willing to follow His Highness..."

Hearing the two merchants pledge themselves, Zhu Cilang smiled and nodded. "That We summoned you was Our own decision, and has nothing to do with anyone else." He pointed at Huang Dabao, his tone already hardening. "Nor with him! So you are not to give bribes to anyone — including him! He is the eunuch We trust most, but you are also the merchants We trust most.

Therefore you and Huang Dabao stand on equal footing — you are all Our people! So long as you keep this firmly in mind, your positions as imperial purveyors will endure!

Huang Dabao, you remember this too. Do not go asking them for money... or there will be no good fruit for you to eat!"

Huang Dabao and the two merchants hastily answered in unison: "We will all remember..."

"Good," Zhu Cilang nodded. "Then We shall now lay out the rules for the imperial accounts office — bookkeeping, cashiering, warehouse management, auditing, and purchasing. Listen carefully, all of you..."

Zhu Cilang's choice of these two imperial purveyors was, of course, made after careful deliberation.

He needed not only people to help manage money, but also people to help spend money, and in the future, people to help rake in money.

And in Zhu Cilang's view, the ones responsible for managing money, spending money, and raking in money could only be merchants! Because the abilities of civil officials and palace attendants in managing, spending, and raking in money had already been proven to be extremely poor.

Moreover, civil officials and palace attendants would not go do business themselves — would they not still have to go through merchants?

That being the case, why should Zhu Cilang not deal directly with merchants? This was no difficulty for him... In his previous life, he had crawled and fought his way through the financial and political industries, where unscrupulous merchants were thickest. Compared with the unscrupulous merchants of later ages, the merchants of the Ming dynasty were not unscrupulous at all — every one of them was a fine merchant who took sincerity as his foundation!

Furthermore, Zhu Cilang could not completely control either the palace-attendant system or the civil-official system. Could even the Chongzhen Emperor claim that he firmly held the court officials in his grasp?

Therefore, fostering an imperial-merchant system outside the systems of court officials and palace attendants, and using them to manage money, spend money, and rake in money, was the optimal choice.

At the very least, a new system is always relatively efficient at its inception.

...

While Zhu Cilang was instructing the two merchants and Huang Dabao on how to manage money, accounts, and purchasing, outside the Meridian Gate, several high officials waiting for the morning court had gathered in the gate passage, discussing how to help the Chongzhen Emperor take the Crown Prince down a peg.

"Now that we have several million taels of silver and twenty thousand stout warriors, why bring up going south at all! Grand Secretary Wei, just watch today! This humble official will certainly wreck this southern journey business..."

The man thumping his chest and assuring Grand Secretary Wei Zaode of the Central Pole Hall that he would wreck the southern journey proposal was a civil official in his forties, dark-faced, dignified in appearance, and radiating righteousness. His name was Guang Shiheng, and he held the post of Supervising Secretary of the Office of Military Affairs. In the earlier debate over moving the capital south and the proposal for the Crown Prince to supervise Nanjing, it had been he who led the opposition and wrecked the matter.

Having twice blocked the southern move and made a name for himself, Guang Shiheng now cut the figure of a representative of bold remonstrating officials at court, and his prestige had soared. Quite a few people were already comparing him to Yu Qian, the famous minister who had directed the capital's defense against the Mongols after the Tumu Crisis.

If Beijing really managed to hold out by luck this time, then Guang Shiheng would soar to success — entering the Grand Secretariat and becoming Grand Secretary Guang would be no problem at all.

So at this moment, he naturally had to oppose the southern move with unmistakable clarity!

Li Banghua glared at the impatient Guang Shiheng and said coldly: "This time it is the Eastern Palace that is pressing for the southern move. Do you still dare impeach the Eastern Palace? Do you wish to stir up a struggle over the foundation of the state?"

Checkmated by Li Banghua, Guang Shiheng was momentarily speechless. Previously, it had been ministers who proposed the southern move and the Crown Prince's going south, so Guang Shiheng could of course impeach them. But this time it was the Crown Prince himself advocating the southern move — did he dare curse the Crown Prince? If he did, Li Banghua, as Chief Censor of the Left, would impeach him for shaking the foundation of the state...

Wei Zaode stroked his beard and shook his head. "If the Eastern Palace wants to move south, it is not very proper for us subjects to oppose it!"

Guang Shiheng's face turned ashen at these words. Wei Zaode, together with the previous Chief Grand Secretary Chen Yan, had opposed the southern move earlier — why had he changed his mind now? This Grand Secretary Wei, it seemed, was also a treacherous minister!

Li Banghua chimed in: "Exactly. The responsibility for the southern move rests with the Eastern Palace... why should we subjects meddle in idle affairs?"

Wei Zaode added: "The Eastern Palace cannot be impeached, but Wu Xiang can! Why not take the knife to Wu Xiang today and charge him with offering his daughter to curry favor with the sovereign?"

(End of Chapter)